Symbolic
by Romanec
Summary: Post XFC. Red and Purple symbolize different things to different people. However, none of them are what the two colors symbolize to Erik. Implied slash.


_**Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men. Marvel does.**_

**A/N: Writer's Block buster for the "post anything you write" challenge. Implied slash. Character study, I think. Maybe. Or not.**

**Rating: T**

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><p><em>Symbolic<em>

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><p>Red symbolizes many things.<p>

Death is the most common connection people make with the color - violent death. Blood is the second connection, despite the fact that blood _is_ red and should therefore technically come first. Technically, death and blood in relation to red would actually go together, because a violent death is often associated with viciously spilt, splattered blood. And in that sense, when people picture violent deaths and the blood that came from them, they often thought of the only two weapons that were used in the acts - guns with their quick final bullets and knives with their sharp slick blades. Therefore, red technically symbolizes those two weapons as well as death and blood.

But while he appreciates those things - spends his nights dreaming of blood and death and bullets and blades, Erik Lehnsherr loves red because it reminds him of his mother.  
>Not her violent, sudden <em>death<em>, brought on by a loose _bullet_ and ending in seeping _blood_ or the _knife_ Herr Doktor used to slice off the number on her arm ("for you, Erik, so that she may rest in peace."). No, Erik loves red because red is the color of the poppies his mother used to grow in their small garden behind their little home. Loves red because it is the color that used to burn his mother's cheeks whenever she laughed. Loves red because his mother loved red. _"It reminds me of life, Erik,"_ she had told him softly one time, when he had paused to watch her in her garden. _"Of all the good and the bad that is in it. Reminds me to never take anything for granted."_

And Erik has never forgotten her words, not even now, and wraps Red around his body like a blanket of the past and lessons of forever.

Purple, like red, represents many things.

Royalty is the first thought that comes to the minds of people when they think of the color - the rich deep texture of robes and gowns worn by medieval ruling families. Often a color mimicked by those who would fancy themselves important. Purple therefore reflects power, or the pursuit and desire for it - the need for luxury and wealth. It is considered, more often than not, a feminine color that is not often worn or even acknowledged by men. And because what women admire that men do not is considered frivolous and vain by the society of humans that he sneers at, and rare to find in nature, purple to many represents artificiality. Something fake. Something brittle and worthless and easy to break. Regardless, Erik has always enjoyed the color - likes how it is not as final as black, but still offers that shade of mystery and solitude.

But it was not until he met Charles that he developed a new understanding of it. That he could see purple as something more than just a replacement for oblivion, though that is exactly what it is. With his constant choice in clothing of various shades of gray, and eyes that have more blue than the sky, one would think that one of those colors would be the telepath's favorite - but he relished in purple. Unlike Erik's mother, Charles never had never given a reason for his love of the strange color, but his adoration for it never failed to mesmerize Erik. The way it always seemed to be around him, whether in the form of a painting or a pillow or a flower or, in some cases, Erik's own turtlenecks, it was always there. So natural to him - like an extension that was beyond his telepathy. And Erik noticed that, like purple, Charles was a rare sort - powerful yet kind and _sodamntrusting_ and fragile. Something many would believe nonexistent - fake. But he wasn't.

Erik broke Charles physically - destroyed him in anger - and the Purple that is Charles became all the more clear. Unlike the Red, Erik does not wrap his body in the color. Instead, he leaves it to trail behind him, like he left Charles - yet latches it around his neck, unable to escape it, as he can never escape Charles. Covers in Purple what Charles claimed of him and still owns. Will always own.

He is a mixture of Red and Purple. Of Red and Purple and **hate**. To the world he has become "Magneto", but in the mirror he sees this combination, this horrible clash of colors in soul-baring costume, as atrocious. A combination of worlds, of people, of ideas, that should have never existed and is a fright to behold. Warm and suiting and comforting and ugly and horrific to look at. An outward shattered reflection.

And it is fitting.

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><p><strong>AN:**

_And... there you have it. If you think of it, in a sense Erik is a product of those around him - anger and hate and betrayal and lust for revenge and fear and pain and a haunting past. I just went with that angle, that he cannot escape any of it and wears it like a second skin instead. He cannot let go._

_(If you examine Magneto's comic-costume, you may understand this better. Or not. I did.)_

_Any thoughts? :) You know I spaz out when I hear from you guys._


End file.
